Orders Being Taken on SHSU History

"Sam Houston State University: An Institutional Memory 1879-2004" won't be out until September, but the Texas Review Press is taking orders now.

Anyone wishing to reserve a copy may do so by printing an order form available by clicking on the book's cover shown on the SHSU Website (www.shsu.edu) or by calling the Texas Review Press at 936.294.1992.

The price is $49.95 plus $5 shipping and handling per copy.

Those planning to buy multiple copies are especially urged to pre-order to assure that adequate numbers are printed on the first press run. SHSU departments may complete purchases using interdepartmental transfers.

In his book, Ty Cashion takes readers from the time when Sam Houston Normal Institute was known as the "college on the hill" to its present status in which it qualifies under their most recent classification system as a Carnegie Doctoral/Research Intensive Institution.

Beginning in 1879 and at first awarding diplomas only to aspiring teachers, it grew into a degree-granting institution by 1919. Since then, 92,700 students have earned Sam Houston degrees.

With only 110 students its opening semester, Sam Houston now has almost 13,500 students from every corner of Texas and 46 countries around the world.

Cashion's approach makes for a readable look at the many fads, traditions, crises, and milestones organized in chapters built around the institution's 12 leaders.

The book is oversized and well illustrated by Tom Seifert, associate professor of photography.

Cashion, an associate professor of history, is an award-winning writer who received his Ph.D. from Texas Christian University in 1993.

Texas Monthly included Cashion in a short list of "a new breed of scholars" who are "changing the way contemporary Texans look at their state." He is an occasional contributor to such newspapers as the Houston Chronicle and speaks regularly to civic groups on topics related to Texas and American western history.

Cashion's "Texas Frontier" (University of Oklahoma Press) won the Rupert Richardson Award in 1996 for Best Book on Texas and Western History. His "Pigskin Pulpit: A Social History of Texas High School Coaches" (Texas State Historical Association, 1998) made several bestseller lists.

Cashion also co-edited a series of biographies with Frank de la Teja titled "The Human Tradition in Texas."

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SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
July 1, 2004
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